WIDE Annual Conference 2006

WIDE – Network Women in Development Europe - has the pleasure to invite you to its Annual Conference "What 'state' are we in? Women’s lives, changing States and expanding Markets” to be held on 2-3 June 2006 in Warsaw, Poland. The conference will be hosted by the KARAT Coalition.<br> <br>The conference is a unique opportunity to initiate a discussion between women from diverse backgrounds from the East, North and Global South on their experience and expectations regarding states and markets with a goal of finding feminist alternatives for the future.<br> <br> The Conference will look critically at the failure of markets to provide economic and social processes that share national wealth and ensure women and men’s well-being. A wide ranging discussion will look at the implications of the bias of macroeconomic and development policies over the last decades in their focus on expanding market-based economic processes, as reflected, for example, in structural adjustment programs in the global South, transition and economic reform in the former state-socialist "East", and welfare state reform/retrenchment efforts in the North.<br> <br> Together participants will look at: What state are we in today? What Markets are we in? What should be changed? What is the best solution for women? What are feminists concerned about today in our different regions? How can we learn together about the intersections of our lives and issues? The conference panels, facilitated debates, workshops and other side events will create a vibrant space where women living in the East, South, and North can debate share and search together for viable alternatives. The conference will feature international experts and within each panels/facilitated debates there will be speakers from East, South and North looking at the issues from specific regional perspective.<br> <br>